Hunt: CPS decision on gender abortion ‘concerning’
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt asks the attorney general for “urgent clarification” on the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision not to prosecute two doctors who agreed to gender abortions.
The CPS made the decision even though it says it had enough evidence to prosecute the two doctors – Dr Prabha Sivaraman and Dr Palaniappan Rajmohan – who agreed to carry out abortions based on a baby’s sex, which is illegal under the Criminal Attempts Act 1981.
The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer QC, said the decision was “very difficult and finely balanced”, but that prosecution would not have been in the public interest.
Gender selection abortion is against the law and completely unacceptable. Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt
The General Medical Council had launched an investigation into the two doctors, who were caught in a sting by the Daily Telegraph, which recorded the two doctors offering abortions to two women who asked for them because they did not want to give birth to a baby girl.
The investigation was put on hold pending the outcome of criminal investigations but will now be restarted, and the GMC has asked the CPS to send on any evidence it gathered.
Restricted practice
But the GMC’s chief executive, Niall Dickson, emphasised that the body’s role was not to punish doctors, rather to protect the public, and that any action it may take “should not be seen as a substitute for action by other authorities”.
The GMC has heavily restricted the two doctors’ right to practice, preventing them from authorising or carrying out abortions and barring them from working outside the UK. No abortions were performed, but the agreement to carry them out on the basis of gender is illegal under the 1981 law.
Any action we may take against a doctor should not be seen as a substitute for action by other authorities. Niall Dickson, GMC chief executive
The GMC has the power to remove the doctors from the professional register although only the CPS can bring a criminal prosecution. A spokesperson for the CPS told Channel 4 News that the GMC’s ability to strike doctors off was part of its decision-making process.
“It’s a fact that we’ve taken into account because the GMC can consider that,” said the spokesperson. “They can consider more finely the decision-making of the doctors,”
Mr Hunt has written to the Attorney General “for urgent clarification on the grounds for this decision.”
“We are clear that gender selection abortion is against the law and completely unacceptable. This is a concerning development,” he added.
Police investigation
The CPS’s decision not to prosecute the two doctors followed an investigation carried out by several police forces and coordinated by the Metropolitan Police Service called Operation Monto, which was started after the Daily Telegraph’s investigation.
Defending its decision, the CPS said: “Taking into account the need for professional judgement which deals firmly with wrongdoing, while not deterring other doctors from carrying out legitimate and medically justified abortions, we have concluded that these specific cases would be better dealt with by the GMC rather than by prosecution.
“In coming to this conclusion, we have also taken into account the level of harm to the victim in the case, and the fact that in these cases no abortion took place or would have taken place.”